Fixed the water pump and the thermostat decided to die, so I got the shits and just ordered everything else, so it'll have an almost completely refreshed cooling system. Got the new thermostat/gasket and radiator cap, just waiting on some radiator hoses and a coolant sensor, which I also found to be broken.

Thanks. There's plenty of little things that need attention, but it's pretty good for what it is. Rust is minimal and isolated to the typical areas around the bottom of the rear quarter guards a little spot at the bottom of the rear windscreen and a few little spots under the boot seal.

Once I get all the cooling stuff sorted - hopefully tomorrow - I'll try and get out and get some better pictures that aren't taken in my driveway.

It never ceases to amaze me how a good set of wheels makes all the difference to a car.

In other news, I got a flat tyre on the rear passenger side (driver's side for you guys) and thanks to my own stupidity, I've lost the lock nut key, so I can't remove the wheel to ascertain why it went flat. I have a feeling that the wheel may have been slipping in the tyre, but I'm not too sure. I'm tracking down a replacement lock nut key for now, but in the worst case scenario, I'll just sacrifice these lock nuts and belt a twist socket over them so I can at least get the wheel off and find out what's going on.

Had a MacGuyver moment and found a solution to removing the lock nuts. Got the wheel off and pumped it up at the local servo and found where it was leaking, so I took it out to a workshop where a mate of mine works and we popped the tyre off the bead to find a small tear. Smeared some sealant over the tear and pumped it up again and it seems like it's good, so everything went better than expected.

Found some time yesterday to install some RCAs that I've had sitting around for a while but couldn't run previously as the tie rod ends would foul on the inner lips of the old wheels. Next item on the agenda is to get a wheel alignment done and just drive it around.

Well, I'd known it wasn't going to look great, but it turns out both guides are pretty cactus. It's still holding tension on the chain though, so it only ever makes a racket when it's starting, before the oil pressure builds.

Yup, stupid single row chain. Don't know why toyota ever went to that... egnbldr on ebay sells great kits with steel back guides. Think it was about 150$ and included everything. Shipping might be the issue since you are on the other side of the world. Wherever you end up getting it from, make sure that you get steel backed guides. Otherwise, you will just be re-doing it in another 100k or so. Biggest issue with not doing it is the chain will eat through the timing chain cover and you will mix oil and coolant.

Yeah, I've done plenty of reading up on the subject in past, haha. I was well prepared for what I saw when I pulled the cover off. I think I'm going to need a new timing case anyway, since the water neck on the exhaust side is pretty badly corroded. I'll probably end up rebuilding the whole engine anyway, since I prefer the piece of mind knowing that everything is fresh, and it gives me a chance to drop in a cam and do a little bit of head work for a little more poke. Most of the seals should be on their way out at this age as well and having the motor out gives me a good opportunity to delete all the EGR and air re-circulation crap.

After having many people point out that the grille was the wrong colour (I was well aware, but just too lazy to fix it), I finally got around to spraying it black again. It's not the best job, but it blends in close enough.

The 22R is still ticking away, but once the exhaust on the Mira is finished and I can drive it again, I'll look into pulling it out and giving it some attention.

good stuff man.. pity with pulling the engine but.. never known what the hype was with the original motors, insight? otherwise just wondering if the 4agze or similar swap might be better in the long run? i guess keeping the original motor makes things a little easier to do quickly..

Pretty much that. I'm not really in a position to be doing engine swaps, and if I were to put a 4A-GE in, I'd be rebuilding it anyway, since I'm always skeptical of secondhand motors. I'm not really after a power house at this point, so a nice mildly worked rebuilt 22R-E will more than suffice for now.